<h1>Frequently Asked Questions</h1>

<p><b>What is GrantsFire?</b></p>

<p>GrantsFire is an aggregator of syndicated grants information. It
allows grantseekers and funders to search for and aggregate
information about grants in real time -- as foundations publish this
information on their web sites.</p>

<p><b>Why is it needed? How is it different from what other
organizations such as the Foundation Center already do?</b></p>

<p>Data that other organizations such as the Foundation Center
aggregates and then sells, is often more than a year old and comes at
a price to nonprofits. Grants information is published by foundations
routinely on their web sites (as is RFP information), but it is not
currently aggregated, searchable, or amended with useful meta data
that would allow grantees and fellow funders to better understand and
target their fundraising and funding. GrantsFire takes what is made
available already by many funders and puts it into a format that is
useful immediately to the nonprofit community.</p>

<p><b>What would it take for an individual foundation to participate?
What kind of resources would this take in rough terms?</b></p>

<p>Great question.  Putting data on the web with machine-readable meta
data is simple, and any foundation with a web master can do it at a
marginal additional cost. In fact, all of the large foundations put
their grants made on the web already.</p>

<p>The trick is the coding of grants by a set of meta data so that
they can be searched and aggregated. This requires working with the
program officers and grants managers who manage this data.  We have
convened a Working Group of CIOs and technical managers of foundations
and thir web sites and are publishing a "Cookbook" that will detail
step-by-step how to publish grants data to be compatible with
GrantsFire.</p>

<p><b>What is the ultimate benefit to foundations? Why would they
invest the time and other resources to participate?</b></p>

<p>Good PR.  Better proposals.  Greater
accountability/transparency/nonprofit citizenship. More good PR.  Less
time spent by foundation grantees hunting for good data, or even
paying for data (with foundation dollars, no less).  Finally, an
understanding of what program officer peers are funding in real time,
and maybe greater collaboration, joint funding efforts, and conversion
of efforts.</p>

<p><b>But how would the world be different if this happens? I know
grants information would be posted much more quickly than they are now
by the Foundation Center, but how else would the world be
different?</b></p>

<p>Great question. We can have a long conversation about how
technology is enabling, how its makes processes and data transparent,
and the its potential impact of this on time and ultimately costs
saved for grantees to find good data in their hunt for the next
grant.</p>

<p>But we'd rather give you a few answers that we got from a quick
recent survey we conducted (all direct quotes):</p>

<div>"I have a strong personal interest in seeing the patterns of how
and where resources (and talent) flows in our region. I wonder if
technology would help us recognize gaps and how to redirect resources
to more effective areas?"</div>

<div>"A service like this could be the equivalent of stock quotes -
something that used to be published on paper, after the fact, (and in
even more local/obscure venues) that is now lifted up into the light,
made transparent and in near-real-time to intererested observers. A
great use of the 'distributed knowledge' collecting that Jay Rosen has
been talking about at his Press Think blog, and a great way to make
taxpayer-supported grantmaking activity more accessible and
visible. Think how many newspapers would be able to do better articles
on local philanthropy! Think how much more responsive and accountable
the local RAGs could become. I think even if you don't get a lot of
foundations who want to give you raw data, it would be a great project
to post on Craigslist or CharityChannel and get some talented amateurs
to manually aggregate one region's grants, just for illustrative
purposes. It's like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities or the
Ford-funded state fiscal analysis initiative from a few years ago -- a
bird's-eye view of where the money is flowing. Would be very, very
informative."</div>

<div>"Great idea. I think this would add value for lots of
organizations -- especially small NPOs that don't have time, staff or
money for other research."</div>

<div>"I can't think of anything that would be more helpful to
grantwriters and fund developers than a central, unified source for
funding deadlines -- the Chronicle of Philantrophy's deadline site is
valuable but it is by no means comprehensive. Thank you for working on
this needed resource."</div>

<p><b>What do you think is the critical mass for something like this
to catch on? How many of the 100 largest foundations would need to
participate, for example? How many others?</b></p>

<p>What is the tipping point here? We think that the 10 leading
foundations and smart PR will generate a LOT of interest, enough to
get other engaged.  This is a community organizing, marketing,
evangelizing, prodding, showcasing, celebrating effort once we have a
prototype up and running.  We currently have six large foundations on
board and have an ambitious but attainable marketing and outreach plan
for Q3 and 4 of 2007.</p>

<p>Funders will come on board if the process of amending grants data
very clear and VERY easy to participate in and there are have some key
champions on board.  Working with Independent Sector, the Foundation
Center, the Council on Foundations, and foundation affinity groups is
key, as is working with the Grantsmanagers' Association.</p>

<p><b>Would there be any subscription fee for grantseekers (or anyone
else) to get the GrantsFire feed?</b></p>

<p>No, absolutely not!  GrantsFire data will be made available in
common web standards such as RSS. No one can or ought to charge for it
-- the point is to make this data that is already out on the web rich
and usable data so that it is easily accessible to the end users.</p>

<p>See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol) for more on
RSS.</p>

<p><b>Would this put Foundation Center out of business?</b></p>

<p>No, absolutely not. We believe that they will enthusiastically
embrace this and use it, and support and evangelize it.  Their core
mission hinges on smart data analysis. GrantsFire will enable them to
do this.</p>

<p>We believe that GrantFire will make organizations like the
Foundation Center even more relevant. The Center already provides
extremely useful data for a fee:</p>

<p>See, for example:
http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/specialtrends.html.
This is highly valuable, especially with GrantsFire when the
information is more timely and accurate than it is now.</p>

<p>We, as the Foundation Center and other watchdog and data analysis
organizations, want to get the best information out to nonprofits on
who funds what where in real time (see the Foundation Center's
mission at http://foundationcenter.org/about/.)</p>

<p>All of the beliefs and values stated:</p>

<ul>
  <li>Philanthropy is vital to our democratic society.</li>
  <li>Transparency and accountability are key to earning the public trust.</li>
  <li>Knowledge about philanthropy starts with accurate information.</li>
  <li>Access to accurate information about philanthropy advances responsible and effective use of philanthropic resources.</li>
  <li>Grantmaker and nonprofit effectiveness is enhanced by shared information and understanding.</li>

<p>We fully and whole-heartedly and enthusiastically support and
endorse all of these tenets.  GrantsFire is a manifestation of this
set of core values in EVERY way.</p>

<p><b>How can I learn more? How can I fund this project? How can I get
my grants information on my web site in a way that GrantsFire can
aggregate?</b></p>

<p>If you are interested in a proposal from us as we are seeking
funding to develop GrantsFire, please contact us. We welcome your
inquiries about how YOU can put your grants information on your web
site in a format that GrantsFire can aggregate -- please be in touch
and we will tell you in very user-friendly detail how.</p>
